First Nations Governance Act  But members who did not participate in the committee's business and who did not have an opportunity to present these amendments—because of a time allocation motion, in fact—could not have presented them, because they were not present at the committee sittings. So, like my hon. colleague from Calgary Centre, I understood that the Speaker had accepted this principle and was about to make a ruling in favour of my colleagues who had not participated in the debate, who had not presented amendments to the committee, so that they could present them at the report and second reading stage.

Modernization Of House Of Commons Procedure  That has disappeared. We have time allocation far too often and far too easily without any thought being given to what it is doing to our parliamentary culture. On behalf of the NDP I will certainly be interested in a number of ways in which we could restrict the use of time allocation or make its use more beneficial to parliament.

Employment Insurance Act  Why was parliament not continued on at that time and allowed to have the kind of debate we needed to properly debate this bill? No, we had to have time allocation again today. I have been in the House since 1993 and I think it is the 69th time that the Liberal government has used time allocation on these types of bills. The part that bothers me more than anything is this: what is so heavy on the government's agenda that it would force us to move this quickly on Bill C-2?

Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons  Committees will continue to be impeded by the interference of cabinet through parliamentary secretaries. There was progress on closure and time allocation. While the committee recommended a 30 minute question period before a motion of time allocation or closure is moved, it could have gone further. It could have recommended that the Speaker be granted more authority to deny a motion from being put if he felt the rights of the minority were being infringed.

Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons  For example, we have recommended increased ministerial responsibility. I will give a few examples of this. There will be a 30 minute debate on the use of time allocation and closure motions. Time allocation is necessary, of course, when debating legislation, so that the government can put through its legislative program. The opposition parties are, I am sure, aware of that necessity but they object when the government makes use of it.

Standing Orders  Then it will bring back the legislation and expect the opposition to be in a good mood when we get to report stage. We are not in a good mood by the time we get to report stage, if we have had time allocation on second reading and if we have had a committee process that has been time allocated itself, as it was with Bill C-20. We are not in a good mood by the time we get to report stage and we should not be.

Points of Order  In his ruling, Speaker Fraser drew a parallel between Standing Order 56.1, which requires a prior attempt to gain unanimous consent, and Standing Order 78, the time allocation rule, which requires notice or prior consultation. It seems doubtful to me, having read the ruling in its entirety, that Speaker Fraser really meant to suggest that Standing Order 56.1 was to be understood as another procedurally acceptable mechanism for limiting debate.

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act  First, I would like to comment on how ironic it is that what we are dealing with in this debate is an unelected and undemocratic chamber trying to impose the splitting of a bill, while here in the House of Commons, which ought to be the democratic counterbalance to the other place, we are again having imposed upon us a time allocation motion, thereby depriving members of the privileges they ought to be entitled to as elected representatives within a representative democracy.

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act  Madam Speaker, while members are trying to have a democratic debate in the House, how ironic that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General would deny me the right to say not only what I think of that other place, but also what I think of the time allocation motion. This is a good example of the attitude of the Liberal government and the Liberals in general with respect to how the House operates. I was saying then, to answer my hon. colleague from the Canadian Alliance, that unlike his party—and he knows this; we have agreed to disagree—we support gun control in principle; his party does not.

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act  I wanted that on the record because, as I said earlier in a brief question and comment that I made, unfortunately the government has again invoked time allocation and many of us will not have the opportunity to represent our constituents with a 20 minute or even a 10 minute speech on the legislation before us today, Bill C-10. I could not agree more with my Bloc colleague when he talked about the problems with the Senate.

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act  Today, faced with its inaction and incompetence, the government is once again interfering with the right of members to speak freely on the matter, by having the government majority pass a time allocation motion for the consideration of this bill. Once again, the rights of members of Parliament are being violated. The Liberal government should have put the finishing touches to its bill before introducing it.

An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act  I wish to inform the House that because of the proceedings on the time allocation motion, government orders will be extended by 30 minutes.

Budget Implementation Act, 2001  Mr. Speaker, here we go again. This is number 83 in terms of closures and time allocations. It is a new record. It was the Liberal Party that complained about the Mulroney government when it invoked closure and time allocation more than any government had done in the past.

Privilege  The House of Commons voted on Bill C-68, An Act respecting firearms and other weapons, on five occasions: second reading, report stage, third reading and two time allocation motions. On June 7, 1995, the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs reported Bill C-68 back to the House with amendments, but the definition of federal minister was not one of the amendments proposed.

Points of Order  However, when he talked about Tuesday he just said we would be doing the Senate amendment on Bill C-10A specifically, without any provision for carry-over. Would the House leader for the governing party tell us if he plans to introduce time allocation on that bill?